


don't let me show cruelty

by LethalBookshelves



Series: your dad is calling [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Communication, Father-Son Relationship, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Irondad, Sort Of, Team Cap friendly, Team as Family, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, but they work it out, only light angst tho, peter and tony are pretending to be biologically related, peter gets royally Pissed Off at stucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-11-02 04:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20626292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LethalBookshelves/pseuds/LethalBookshelves
Summary: Peter found the clip of Siberia.“Dad? Why didn’t you tell me?” Peter’s voice cracks halfway through the sentence, and his eyes start to water. “Why would you ever hide something like this from me?”Tony’s mouth opens and closes like a fish, no sounds coming out. “I—”“Peter, it wasn’t Tony’s fault.” Steve joins in with the intention of dissolving the tension between father and son, but you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that wasn’t a good idea.Peter whirls to face the captain, face changing from that hurt look to one of pure anger. Tony has half a mind to think about how much he looked like May in that moment, or even Pepper. “You.You.How could you?!”





	don't let me show cruelty

**Author's Note:**

> me, after a month of not updating: i'll update this next week!  
*4 weeks later* *clown noises*

The day had started off with a light drizzle, the drops _ pitter-pattering _ on the large glass windows of the tower. For the past few days, Peter hadn’t gone back to his apartment as May had gone out of state for work. The tower was permanently filled with lively chatter and bubbling laughter, and Tony was so unbelievably grateful for Peter’s unrelenting energy even after the Wakandan party left.

Bucky had stayed; Tony won’t lie and say he was ecstatic, but he wasn’t as uneasy as he thought he’d be. It was difficult to have any ill feelings towards a man who let his kid stick magnets on his metal arm.

Speaking of that incident, Tony had almost inhaled his scalding coffee at the sight of Barnes watching Disney channel while Wanda put his hair in braids and Peter carefully attached colorful magnets and stickers onto the new vibranium arm. Vision had been carefully observing Wanda’s actions, then repeated them into Wanda’s own hair. The ex-assassin himself didn’t seem to care at all, content to watch whatever he was watching.

It was shortly after that when Peter had called him ‘Uncle Bucky’ for the first time.

It was just in passing, just Peter being Peter. Just a “Thanks, Uncle Bucky!” called out before he walked out of the room after Barnes had helped him with his homework. That little phrase made Barnes’ face contort like he was trying not to cry. Tony felt a little sorry for him in that moment; must’ve been a while since anyone had called him that.

But then it all went to shit.

Peter found the clip of Siberia.

Too young to look so devastated, so haunted and betrayed. Peter looked like he did when Tony had cornered him on that rooftop after the ferry, and Tony wishes he could turn back time and delete the video before Peter saw it. He never wanted to see that face on his kid ever again. But that seemed to be the least of his problems.

“Dad? Why didn’t you tell me?” Peter’s voice cracks halfway through the sentence, and his eyes start to water. “Why would you ever hide something like this from me?”

Tony’s mouth opens and closes like a fish, no sounds coming out. “I—”

“Peter, it wasn’t Tony’s fault.” Steve joins in with the intention of dissolving the tension between father and son, but you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that wasn’t a good idea.

Peter whirls to face the captain, face changing from that hurt look to one of pure anger. Tony has half a mind to think about how much he looked like May in that moment, or even Pepper. “You._ You. _ How _ could you?!” _

Looking absolutely nothing like the adorable boy who liked to tuck himself into his side for comfort, Peter stalks forward to the super soldiers without an ounce of hesitation, brimming with rage, and Tony actually fears for their lives. Tony had already decided to put the past behind him, not wanting to dwell on the uncomfortable memories for any longer than strictly necessary with his therapist (which Pepper finally convinced him to get, and she even used Peter as backup). His choice to forgive and forget had also been because he did not, under any circumstances, want Peter to find out exactly why he was so wary of Steve and Bucky. 

Even now Tony wasn’t sure why he was so adamant that Peter didn’t know. Before, right after it happened, it was probably because he didn’t want to appear as weak in front of the boy. Tony’s pride tended to create a glorious mess at best, a civil war at worst. But later on, he didn’t tell Peter because he didn’t want the images of Peter’s heroes to be tainted. Peter had idolized them for so long, he didn’t want to be the one to completely shatter the illusion.

Steve moves in front of Bucky, and both of them look shaken. It was odd of them to be so expressive.

_ Kid, that’s enough. _ He wants to say, but his mouth doesn’t move. _ They’re friends. _

_ Are they? _ A voice hisses in his ear, sounding too much like Zemo. _ They left you for dead in a frozen wasteland. Without T’Challa, you’d be dead. _

He lets Peter walk forward, a small and terrible part of him relishing in the fact that the Rogues get a taste of their own medicine.

“Son—” Steve tries again, palms open in surrender and voice unthreatening.

_ “Don’t call me that!” _ Peter shrieks, breathing heavily. “You almost killed my dad! You kept a secret like that, then beat him up for being mad about it?!”

“Peter, I know it looks bad, and it was, we both were acting irrationally. Yes, what I did was wrong, and I’m so _ sorry. _” Steve stresses, and the part of Tony that wanted to see them suffer lessened. “We were both fighting with our best assets, and we weren’t thinking.”

Peter snorts, the sound ugly. Tony winces. “With your best assets? You may have tried your hardest to kill him, but I know _ exactly _ what assets Dad had in the Mark 46, and he didn’t use them. If he wanted to kill you, there wouldn’t even be any bodies left to recover.” _ And I think he should have. _ It’s an unspoken phrase, but they all hear it anyway.

That sends the whole room into complete silence. Tony stares at the kid in shock. Never in his life did Tony think he’d ever hear Peter sound so… cynical. He was turning more and more into who Tony used to be. Words, unbidden, reached his mind.

_ I just wanted to be like you. _

Steve doesn’t try to talk anymore no matter how much he wants to, looking rightfully ashamed. But that’s not what shoves Tony out of his trance; it’s Bucky, who’s actually shaking, even if only a little. He hasn’t lifted his eyes since Peter first mentioned Siberia, and he’s clenching his metal hand so tightly Tony was sure it would’ve broken if it weren’t made of vibranium.

“Pete.” Tony tries, but the boy ignores him, or maybe didn’t even notice he said anything.

“And you still had the audacity to come back here? To use all of Dad’s money and resources? After what you did?” Peter accuses, getting closer and closer to them until he’s practically in their faces.

“Peter.” Tony tries again, this time with a firm tone that meant no nonsense. Bucky’s tremors were growing worse, and it honest-to-God breaks Tony’s heart. Barnes never asked for any of this. “That’s enough.”

Peter must hear the warning in his tone because he backs down almost instantly. He turns to Tony, looking like both a rabid dog and a kicked puppy, before abruptly turning around and fleeing the room. 

As soon as Peter is out of sight, Tony deflates. His limbs are heavy, and it takes more strength than it should to bring his eyes to the two other men. “That one was on me. I shouldn’t have kept the videos.” _ It was hard to delete them, _ he doesn’t say, _ not when they could be used to protect me from the public’s opinion. _

_ Always a way out. _

Barnes still won’t meet his eyes, but when Steve places a hand on Bucky’s shoulder the man immediately leans on his friend for support. “No, we’re sorry. It was all on me. If I had taken the time to just… listen to you for all these years, I probably wouldn’t have acted so defensively.”

“I’m sorry, too.” Bucky speaks up, eyes finally meeting his. “Not just for what I did as the Winter Soldier, but just for being the reason Steve started the fight in the first place.”

“Well, if we’re all apologizing: I’m sorry too. For _ so many things. _” Tony mutters, breaking eye contact. “I fucked up a lot over the years, and this was just one of them. But don’t blame Peter, he’s got nothing to do with any of this.”

“We don’t blame him. Anyone would have reacted badly if they found out their father was almost killed by people close to them.” Steve frowns, then gives a smile that looks more like a grimace. “Guess he won’t be calling us his uncles anymore, huh?”

Tony gives a slight upwards turn of his lip back. “Let me talk to him first. Peter’s just… emotional. That kid wears his heart on his sleeve. When he calms down things might look different.”

  


Tony was torn between going after Peter immediately, or giving him space to calm down. One question to FRIDAY was all it took for him to decide.

_ “Peter is currently in a state of high emotional distress in his room.” _ Well, he can’t just let that be.

He knocks on his son’s door softly as to not irritate what must already be a sensory overload. “Pete? Can I come in?”

Tony can’t actually hear what’s coming from inside the room due to the thick, soundproof walls he installed for the kid. While Tony could technically turn the soundproofing off, he didn’t want to hurt Peter. “Kid?”

The door handle slowly turns, and the door opens just enough for Tony to slip in. The bedroom is dark and clothes clutter every available surface. Mechanical junk is scattered all over the desk, which Tony reminds himself to lecture Peter on later. The boy in question has one of Tony’s old MIT hoodies on and looks so unbelievably small while swaddled in the fabric. He won’t meet his eyes. 

“Hey, there. You wanna sit down?” Tony asks softly, lightly grasping an arm and maneuvering him to sit on the bed. “How’s your senses?”

It takes Peter a moment to respond. “Earlier, maybe 15, but now it’s like a 13.” Okay, not as bad as it could have been. Peter’s senses were normally only at an 11.

The man hums softly, thumb making soothing circles on the back of Peter’s hand. “Is this alright?”

Peter nods slightly, a little stress leaving his posture. “Yeah.”

They don’t speak for a long time after that, and somehow they’ve managed to move into their default position again: Tony’s arm over his shoulder, hand carding through the brown curls, Peter tucked right into his side. “You wanna talk about what happened?”

As expected, Peter shakes his head ‘no’. “But you’re gonna make me talk about it anyway, aren’t you.”

“Yup.” Tony pops the ‘p’. Peter groans.

“I just… I didn’t mean to watch the video—honest! I was only screwing around with the code, and I found some new folders I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t like they were labelled ‘do not watch’, I only saw that they were HUD recordings. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have looked in the code,” Peter sulks, “but I don’t regret watching it. I was so _ nice _ to them! I called them Uncle Steve and Uncle Bucky!”

“Well… I’m proud that your programming abilities have improved enough for you to get so far.” Tony adds before the conversation can escalate. “But that really wasn’t something for you to see. Yes, it looks bad, but this was a long time ago—”

“It was like last year.” 

“Shush, don’t talk back to me. And we’ve talked about it many times since it happened. Both sides of the argument have reached an agreement, and we’ve settled any disputes.” Tony pauses, scoots a little closer. “We’ve _ forgiven _ each other, Pete. We both were wrong. We understand that now.”

Peter doesn’t say anything, choosing to pick at the bedsheets with the hand Tony isn’t holding. “...Is that why you didn’t tell me?”

Tony’s mouth forms a grim line. _ No, I didn’t tell you because I wanted to save face. _ “Yeah. It was old news.” _ Liar. _

“Peter… Tell me you understand.” Tony pleads. He already felt responsible for dragging Spider-man into the battle, and being beaten up by the opposing team probably wasn’t helping Peter forgive them.

“Of course I understand, Dad, but… what they did to you in Siberia… That’s just not right. No matter what someone does to you, you shouldn’t react with violence!” Peter argues.

“Like I didn’t?” Tony says pointedly. Peter quiets. “Look, kid, there was a lot that happened. It wasn’t just that one day, that one fight—it was building up for months. Years, even. It just happened to bubble over in a terrible way. But all of us have grown up and matured since then; we know what we did wrong, and we’ve forgiven each other. I think you should too.”

It’s quiet after that. Tony lets Peter sit in the silence to think; he’s said what he needed to say, now it was up to Peter to decide what to do. He hopes that the kid will forgive them because it would be so much easier to live together if they weren’t angry at each other. In the meantime, Tony was going to untangle the knots in his hair and offer his support.

“Dad?”

“Hm?”

“I’ve decided.”

  


Steve and Bucky are right where he left them. They’re quietly murmuring to each other on the couch, frowns on both their faces. Tony can’t hear what they’re saying, but Peter does if the small smile is any indication.

“Well,” Tony starts, causing the soldiers to snap to attention, “Pete here has something to say to you.”

The two stand up nervously. No one talks. If Tony expected Peter to start the conversation, he was wrong. Instead, Peter stares at the two without blinking. They fidget. Tony sweats. _ What is Peter doing? Is this some weird spider intimidation tactic I don’t know about? Even Natasha does this! _

“Uh, if it’s alright, we’d like to say something too.” Steve speaks up, looking at them. “We’re really, _ really _ sorry. Over the years, the team had always relied on Tony for practically everything, and we were pretty bad at showing our appreciation. And then the whole fight happened, and we hurt you. Both of you. So, we’d like to apologize for it.”

Tony once again waves away the apology. “Rogers, you’ve apologized so many times you’re practically Canadian at this point, it’s fine. I forgive you.” Tony states, _ I’d apologize too for all the shitty things I’ve done, but everyone knows how much I hate saying sorry. _ Then looks towards his son. _ Your turn, bud. _

Peter stops staring at them to take a deep breath, eyes closing. The soldiers look too nervous to only be having a conversation with a 15-year-old. You’d think Peter was about to tell them if they were the father or not. In any other instance, Tony would be laughing his ass off (correction: when all this blows over, he was _ definitely _ going to laugh his ass off).

Peter’s eyes open. “I won’t lie and say I forgive you—_ completely _, at least. Dad wants me to let it go, so I’m going to try and do that. Neither of you have done anything to make me hate you since you’ve arrived, and it would be stupid to hold you both to something Dad already forgave you for.”

Steve looks relieved. “Thank you, Peter.” 

“We won’t let you down,” Bucky meets Tony’s eyes, face stony. “Not again.”

Tony chuckles disbelievingly, shaking his head. “You’re both so incredibly noble it hurts me sometimes. Anyways, now that we’ve gone through all that, what do you want for dinner?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'M SORRY FOR DYING FOR SO LONG SO HERE ARE MY EXCUSES:  
1\. i'm in university now whoop whoop  
2\. re-exploring the city (aka i'm trying to go places and then i get lost LMAO)  
3\. so much work TT^TT  
4\. i'm a piece of garbage hahaha :D
> 
> thank you so much if you're still reading! leave in the comments any ideas you want to see happen
> 
> fic title from 'show me love' by hundred waters


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